1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the field of self-service distribution systems, and in particular, to the field of customer self-checkout of articles not provided with machine-scannable price code labels.
2. Prior Art
A self-service distribution system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,343. Check-out counters for use in a supermarket, for example, are provided with a laser scanner for reading the Universal Product Code (UPC) labels on the individual products presented to it by each customer. The counters are also provided with transport belts or conveyors controlled by a central processor which, in turn, is supplied with the information from a weigh scale under the input conveyor and from optical curtain devices at strategic locations along the belts and in a bagging area. The outfeed conveyor operates through a tunnel such that a customer cannot reach a product being conveyed therethrough. An optical curtain disposed at the entry to the tunnel is broken by passage of an article into the tunnel and also by a customer reaching into the tunnel. Products are conveyed to the bagging area if (1) the actual weight of the product as determined by the scale corresponds to the anticipated weight obtained from a memory bank based upon the product UPC label identification, and (2) none of various other events have occurred. A display screen prompts the customer with questions and instructions. Improper use of the system causes interruption or reversal of conveyor operation and requires that a product be removed and rescanned. When scanning is complete, the customer activates an input signal and is furnished with a printed itemized list which is taken along with subsequently bagged products to a cashier for payment and issuance of a final receipt. An article surveillance system may be included to detect any tagged products transported along the pedestrian path rather than along the path through the tunnel.
Although such a system provides great efficiency of operation for most kinds of articles, the system cannot cope with articles not already having scannable UPC labels. In a typical supermarket not equipped with a self-checkout system, produce checkout is handled in the most inefficient manner. The customer just take the articles to the checkcut counter, the articles must be weighed by the cashier and the price must be manually entered by the cashier at the keyboard of the payment register. Unlike meat, delicatessen and bakery departments in a supermarket, the produce department is generally not staffed.
Accordingly, use of a self-checkout system requires that the produce department be staffed and that all articles be provided with UPC labels. Alternatively, some means must be provided for customers to carry produce through to the cashier, bypassing the self-checkout counters. This is expensive in requiring that the produce department be staffed, or is inefficient in requiring that cashiers do more than merely attend collection of receipts.
This invention overcomes these significant problems in dealing with the self-checkout of such inconvenient articles as produce, by obviating the need to staff the produce department and by obviating the need for the cashier to weigh and calculate produce prices.